SOME PRELIMINARY SKIRMISHING
Now, perhaps, taking advantage of an interval while the
representatives of Scotland Yard sought the aid of soap and water as
a preliminary to a meal, it is permissible to wander in the gloaming
with Sylvia Manning and her escort. To speak of the gloaming is a
poetic license, it is true. Seven o'clock on a fine summer evening in
England is still broad daylight, but daylight of a quality that lends
itself admirably to the exigencies of romance. There is a species of
dreaminess in the air. The landscape assumes soft tints unknown to
a fiery sun. Tender shadows steal from undiscovered realms. It is
permissible to believe that every night on Parnassus is a night in
June.
At first these two young people were at a loss to know what to talk
about. By tacit consent they ignored the morning's tragedy, yet they
might not indulge in the irresponsible chatter which would have
provided a ready resource under normal conditions. Luckily Trenholme
remembered that the girl said she painted.
"It is a relief to find that you also are of the elect," he said. "An
artist will look at my pictures with the artist's eye. There are
other sorts of eyes--Eliza's, for instance. Do you know Eliza, of the
White Horse?"
Sylvia collected her wits, which were wool-gathering.
"I think I have met her at village bazaars and tea fights," she said.
"Is she a stout, red-faced woman?"
"Both, to excess; but her chief attribute is her tongue, which has
solved the secret of perpetual motion. Had it kept silent even for
a few seconds at lunch time today, that sharp-eyed and rabbit-eared
detective would never have known of the second picture--your
picture--because I can eke out my exhibits by a half finished sketch
of the lake and a pencil note of the gates. But putting the bits of
the puzzle together afterwards, I came to the conclusion that Mary,
our kitchen maid, passed my room, saw the picture on the easel and was
scandalized. She of course told Eliza, who went to be shocked on her
own account, and then came downstairs and pitched into me. At that
moment the Scotland Yard man turned up."
"Is it so very--dreadful, then?"
"Dreadful! It may fall far short of the standard set by my own vanity;
but given any sort of skill in the painter, how can a charming study
of a girl in a bathing costume, standing by the side of a statue of
Aphrodite, be dreadful? Of course, Miss Manning, you can hardly
understand the way in which a certain section of the public regards
art. In studio jargon we call it the 'Oh, ma!' crowd, that being the
favorite exclamation of the young ladies who peep and condemn. These
people are the hopeless Philistines who argue about the sex of angels,
and demand that nude statues shall be draped. But my picture must
speak for itself. Tell me something about your own work. Are you
taking up painting seriously?"
Now, to be candid, Sylvia herself was not wholly emancipated from the
state of Philistinism which Trenholme was railing at. Had he been less
eager to secure a favorable verdict, or even less agitated by the
unlooked-for condescension she was showing, he would have seen the
absurdity of classing a girl of twenty with the lovers of art for
art's sake, those earnest-eyed enthusiasts who regard a perfect curve
or an inimitable flesh tint as of vastly greater importance than the
squeamishness of the young person. Painters have their limitations as
well as Mrs. Grundy, and John Trenholme did not suffer a fool gladly.
Sylvia, however, had the good sense to realize that she was listening
to a man whose finer instincts had never been trammeled by conventions
which might be wholesome in an academy for young ladies. Certainly she
wondered what sort of figure she cut in this much debated picture, but
that interesting point would be determined shortly. Meanwhile she
answered demurely enough:
"I'm afraid you have taken me too seriously. I have hardly progressed
beyond the stage where one discovers, with a sort of gasp, that trees
may be blue or red, and skies green. Though I am going to look at your
pictures, Mr. Trenholme, it by no means follows that I shall ever dare
to show you any of mine."
"Still, I think you must have the artistic soul," he said
thoughtfully.
"Why?"
"There was more than mere physical delight in your swimming this
morning. You reveled in the sunlight, in the golden air, in the scents
of trees and shrubs and flowering grass. First-rate swimmer as you
are, you would not have enjoyed that dip half as much if it were taken
in a covered bath, where your eyes dwelt only on white tiles and
dressing-booths."
The girl, subtly aware of a new element in life, was alarmed by its
piercing sweetness, and with ruthless logic brought their talk back to
a commonplace level.
"Roxton seems to be a rather quaint place to find you in, Mr.
Trenholme," she said. "How did you happen on our tiny village? Though
so far from London, we are quite a byway. Why did you pay us a visit?"
So Trenholme dropped to earth again, and they spoke of matters of
slight import till the boundary wall was reached.
Sylvia hailed a man attending cattle in the farmyard, and the artist
vaulted the wall, which was breast high. The girl wondered if she
could do that. When opportunity served she would try. Resting her
elbows on the coping-stones, she watched Trenholme as he hurried away
among the buildings and made for the village. She had never before met
such a man or any one even remotely like him. He differed essentially
from the Fenleys, greatly as the brothers themselves differed. Without
conscious effort to please, he had qualities that appealed strongly to
women, and Sylvia knew now that no consideration would induce her to
marry either of her "cousins."
If asked to put her thought into words, she would have boggled at the
task, for intuition is not to be defined in set speech. In her own
way, she had summed up the characteristics of the two men with one of
whom marriage had been at least a possibility. Hilton she feared and
Robert she despised, so if either was to become her husband, it would
be Hilton. But five minutes of John Trenholme's companionship had
given her a standard by which to measure her suitors, and both fell
wofully short of its demands. She saw with startling clearness of
vision that Hilton, the schemer, and Robert, the wastrel, led selfish
lives. Souls they must possess, but souls starved by lack of
spirituality, souls pent in dun prisons of their own contriving.
She was so lost in thought, thought that strayed from crystal-bright
imageries to nebulous shapes at once dark and terrifying, that the
first intimation she received of Robert Fenley's approach was his
stertorous breathing. From a rapid walk he had broken into a jog trot
when he saw Trenholme vanish over the wall. Of late he seldom walked
or rode a horse, and he was slightly out of condition, so his heavy
face was flushed and perspiring, and his utterance somewhat labored
when the girl turned at his cry:
"I say, Sylvia--you've given me such a chase! Who the deuce is that
fellow, an' what are you doing here?"
Robert had appeared at an inauspicious moment. Sylvia eyed him with a
new disfavor. He was decidedly gross, both in manner and language. She
was sure he could not have vaulted the wall.
"I'm not aware that I called for any chasing on your part," she said,
with an aloofness perilously akin to disdain.
He halted, panting, and eyed her sulkily.
"No, but dash it all! You can't go walking around with any rotten
outsider who forces himself into your company," was the most amiable
reply he could frame on the spur of the moment.
"You are short of breath," she said, smiling in a curiously impersonal
way. "Run back to the house. It will do you good."
"All right. You run with me. The first gong will go any minute, and
we've got to eat, you know, even though the pater _is_ dead."
It was an unhappy allusion. Sylvia stiffened.
"My poor uncle's death did not seem to trouble you greatly this
morning," she said. "Kindly leave me now. I'll follow soon. I am
waiting for Mr. Trenholme, who wants to show me some sketches."
"A nice time to look at sketches, upon my word! And who's Trenholme,
I'd like to know?"
Sylvia bethought herself. Certainly an explanation was needful, and
her feminine wit supplied one instantly.
"Mr. Trenholme was sent here by the Scotland Yard people," she said,
a trifle less frigidly. "I suppose we shall all be mixed up in the
inquiry the detectives are holding, and it seems that Mr. Trenholme
was at work in the park this morning when that awful affair took
place. Unknown to me, I was near the spot where he was sketching
before breakfast, and one of the detectives, the little one, says it
is important that--that the fact should be proved. Mr. Trenholme
called to tell me just what happened. So you see there is nothing in
his action that should annoy any one--you least of any, since you
were away from home at the time."
"But why has he mizzled over the wall?"
"He is staying at the White Horse Inn, and has gone to fetch the
drawings."
"Oh, I didn't understand. If that's it, I'll wait till he turns up.
You'll soon get rid of him."
Sylvia had no valid reason to urge against this decision, but she did
not desire Robert's company, and chose a feminine method of resenting
it.
"I don't think Mr. Trenholme will be anxious to meet you," she said
coolly.
"Why not?"
"You are such a transparent person in your likes and dislikes. You
have never even seen him, in the ordinary sense of the word, yet you
speak of him in a way so unwarranted, so ridiculously untrue, that
your manner might annoy him."
"My manner, indeed! Is he so precious then? By gad, it'll be
interesting to look this rare bird over."
She turned her back on him and leaned on the wall again. Her slight,
lissome figure acquired a new elegance from her black dress. Robert
had never set eyes on Sylvia in such a costume before that day.
Hitherto she had been a schoolgirl, a flapper, a straight-limbed,
boyish young person in long frocks; but today she seemed to have put
on a new air of womanliness, and he found it strangely attractive.
"There's no sense in our quarreling about the chap anyhow," he said
with a gruff attempt to smooth away difficulties. "Of course, I
sh'an't let on I followed you. Just spotted you in the distance and
joined you by chance, don't you know."
Sylvia did not answer. She was comparing Robert Fenley's
conversational style with John Trenholme's, and the comparison was
unflattering to Robert.
So he, too, came and leaned on the wall.
"I'm sorry if I annoyed you just now, Syl," he said. "That dashed
little detective is to blame. He does put things in such a beastly
unpleasant way."
"What things?"
"Why, about you and me and all of us. Gave me a regular lecture
because I went back to town this morning. I couldn't help it, old
girl. I really couldn't. I had to settle some urgent business, but
that's all ended now. The pater's death has steadied me. No more
gallivanting off to London for me. Settle down in Roxton, Board of
Guardians on Saturdays, church on Sunday, tea and tennis at the
vicarage, and 'you-come-to-our-place-tomorrow.' You know the sort of
thing--old-fashioned, respectable and comfy. I'll sell my motor bike
and start a car. Motor bikes make a fellow a bit of a vagabond--eh,
what? They _will_ go the pace. You can't stop 'em. Fifty per, and be
hanged to the police, that's their motto."
"It sounds idyllic," the girl forced herself to say lightly, but her
teeth met with a snap, and her fingers gripped the rough surface of
the stones, for she remembered how Trenholme had said of her that she
"reveled in the sunlight, in the golden air, in the scents of trees
and shrubs and flowering grasses."
There was a musical cadence in her voice that restored Robert's surly
good humor; he was of that peculiar type of spoiled youth whose laugh
is a guffaw and whose mirth ever holds a snarl.
"Here comes your paint slinger," he said. "Wonder if he really can
stage a decent picture. If so, when the present fuss is ended we'll
get him to do a group. You and me and the keepers and dogs in front
of the Warren Covert, next October, after a big drive. How would that
be?"
"I'm sure Mr. Trenholme will feel flattered."
When Trenholme approached he was not too well pleased to find Miss
Manning in charge of a new cavalier.
From items gathered earlier in the village he guessed the newcomer's
identity. Perhaps he expected that the girl would offer an
introduction, but she only smiled pleasantly and said:
"You must have hurried. I do hope I haven't put you to any
inconvenience?"
"Eliza informed me that she had just popped my chicken in the oven,
so there is plenty of time," he said. "I suppose it makes one hot
to be constantly popping things into ovens. In the course of years
one should become a sort of salamander. Have you ever read the
autobiography of that great artist and very complete rascal, Benvenuto
Cellini? He is the last person reputed to have seen a real salamander
in the fire, and he only remembered the fact because his father beat
him lest he should forget it."
"Ben who?" broke in Robert cheerfully.
"Benvenuto Cellini."
"Never heard of him.... Well, let's have a peep-o. Miss Manning and I
dine at a quarter to eight. You've been taking some snapshots in the
park, I'm told. If they've got any ginger in them----"
"Probably you will describe them as hot stuff," said Trenholme, laying
a portfolio on the wall in front of Sylvia and opening it.
"This is a pencil drawing of the great gates," he went on, ignoring
Fenley. "Of course, they're Wren's, and therefore beautiful. Roxton
Park holds a real treasure in those gates, Miss Manning. Here is a
water-color sketch of the house and grounds. Do you like it?"
"Oh, it is exquisite! Why, you have caught the very glint of sunshine
on the walls and roofs, and it is shimmering in the leaves of that
copper beech. Ah me! It looks so easy."
Robert peered over her shoulder. Sylvia's gasp of admiration annoyed
him; but he looked and said nothing.
"This," continued Trenholme, "is an unfinished study of the lake. I
was so busily occupied that I was not aware of your presence until you
were quite near at hand. Then when you dived into the water I grabbed
a canvas and some tubes of paint. Here is the result--completed, to a
large extent, in my room at the inn."
He took a picture out of a compartment of the portfolio specially
constructed to protect an undried surface, and placed it at an angle
that suited the light. His tone was unconcerned, for he had steeled
himself against this crucial moment. Would she be angered? Would those
limpid blue eyes, violet now in shadow, be raised to his in protest
and vexed dismay? During the brief walk to and from the inn he had
recollected the girl's age, her surroundings, the cramping influences
of existence in a society of middle-class City folk. He felt like a
prisoner awaiting a verdict when the issue was doubtful, and a wave of
impulse might sway the jury one way or the other.
But he held his head high, and his face flushed slightly, for there
could be no gainsaying the message glowing from that cunning brush
work. There were two goddesses, one in marble and one palpitating with
life. The likeness, too, was undeniable. If one was a replica of Greek
art at its zenith, the other was unmistakably Sylvia Manning.
The girl gazed long and earnestly. Her pale cheeks had reddened for an
instant, but the flood of surprise and emotion ebbed as quickly as it
flowed, and left her wan, with parted lips.
At last she looked at Trenholme and spoke.
"Thank you!" she said, and their eyes met.
The artist understood; and he in turn, blanched somewhat. Rather
hastily he replaced the picture in its receptacle.
Robert Fenley coughed and grinned, and the spell was broken.
"You said I'd call it hot stuff," he said. "Well, you sized my opinion
up to a T. Of course, it's jolly clever--any fellow can see that----"
"Good night, Mr. Trenholme," said Sylvia, and she made off at a rapid
pace. Robert grinned again.
"No young lady would stand that sort of thing," he chuckled. "You
didn't really think she would--eh, what? But look here, I'll buy it.
Send me a line later."
He hurried after Sylvia, running to overtake her. Trenholme stood
there a long time; in fact, until the two were hidden by the distant
line of trees. Then he smiled.
"So you are Robert Fenley," he communed, packing the portfolio
leisurely. "Well, if Sylvia Manning marries you, I'll be a bachelor
all my days, for I'll never dare imagine I know anything about a
woman's soul; though I'm prepared at this hour of grace to stake my
career that that girl's soul is worthy of her very perfect body."
Puffing a good deal, Fenley contrived to overhaul his "cousin."
"By jing, Sylvia, you can step out a bit," he said. "And you change
your mind mighty quick. Five minutes ago you were ready to wait any
length of time till that Johnny turned up, and now you're doing more
than five per. What's the rush? It's only half past seven, and we
don't dress tonight."
"I'm not dining downstairs," she answered.
"Oh, I say, I can't stand Hilton all alone."
"Nor can I stand either of you," she was tempted to retort, but
contented herself by saying that she had arranged for a meal to be
served in her aunt's room. Grumble and growl as he might, Robert could
not shake her resolve; he was in a vile temper when he reached the
dining-room.
His brother had not arrived, so he braced himself for an ordeal by
drinking a stiff whisky and soda. When Hilton came in the pair nodded
to each other but ate in silence. At last Robert glanced up at
Tomlinson.
"Just shove the stuff on the table and clear out," he said. "We'll
help ourselves. Mr. Hilton and I want to have a quiet talk."
Hilton gave him a quick underlook but did not interfere. Perhaps
purposely, when the servants had left the room he opened the battle
with a sneer.
"I hope you didn't make a fool of yourself this evening," he said.
"As how?" queried Robert, wondrously subdued to all appearance, though
aching to give the other what he called "a bit of his mind."
"I understand you made after Sylvia and the artist, meaning to
chastise somebody."
"You were wrong," said Robert slowly. "You nearly always are. I make
mistakes myself, but I own up handsomely. You don't. That's where we
differ, see?"
"I see differences," and Hilton helped himself to a glass of claret.
"Trenholme, the artist Johnny, is a clever chap--slightly cracked, as
they all are, but dashed clever. By gad, you ought to see the picture
he's painted of Sylvia. Anyhow, you _will_ see it. I've bought it."
"Really?"
"I said I'd buy it--same thing. He'll jump at the offer. It'll hang in
my dressing-room. I don't suppose Sylvia will kick about a trifle
like that when we're married."
Hilton was holding the glass of wine to his lips. His hand shook, and
he spilled a little, but he drank the remainder.
"When did you decide to marry Sylvia?" he inquired, after a pause
which might have been needed to gain control of his voice.
"It's been decided for a long time," said Robert doggedly, himself
showing some signs of enforced restraint. "It was the pater's wish, as
you know. I'm sorry now I didn't fix matters before he died; but
'better late than never.' I asked Sylvia today, and we've arranged to
get married quite soon."
"Are you by any chance telling the truth?"
"What the blazes do you mean?" and Robert's fist pounded the table
heavily.
"Exactly what I say. You say that you and Sylvia have arranged to get
married quite soon. Those were your words. Is that true?"
"Confound you, of course it is."
"Sylvia has actually agreed to that?"
"I asked her. What more do you want?"
"I am merely inquiring civilly what she said."
"Dash it, you know what girls are like. You ought to. Isn't Eileen
Garth a bit coy at times?"
"One might remark that Mrs. Lisle also was coy."
"Look here----" began the other furiously, but the other checked him.
"Let us stop bickering like a couple of counter jumpers," he said, and
a shrewder man than Robert might have been warned by the slow,
incisive utterance. "You make an astonishing announcement on an
occasion when it might least be expected, yet resent any doubt being
thrown on its accuracy. Did or did not Sylvia accept you?"
"Well, she said something about not wishing to talk of marriage so
soon after the old man's death, but that was just her way of putting
it. I mean to marry her; and when a fellow has made up his mind on a
thing like that it's best to say so and have done with it. Sylvia's a
jolly nice girl, and has plenty of tin. I'm first in the field, so I'm
warning off any other candidates. See?"
"Yes, I see," said Hilton, pouring out another glass of wine. This
time his hand was quite steady, and he drank without mishap.
"Ain't you going to wish me luck?" said Robert, eying him viciously.
"I agree with Sylvia. The day we have lost our father is hardly a
fitting time for such a discussion; or shall I say ceremony?"
"You can say what the devil you like. And you can do what you like.
Only keep off my corns and I won't tread on yours."
Having, as he fancied, struck a decisive blow in the struggle for
that rare prize, Sylvia, Robert Fenley pushed back his chair, arose,
waited a second for an answer which came not, and strode out,
muttering something about being "fed up."
Hilton's face was lowered, and one nervous hand shaded his brows.
Robert thought he had scored, but he could not see the inhuman rage
blazing in those hidden eyes. The discovery, had he made it, might not
have distressed him, but he would surely have been puzzled by the
strange smile which wrinkled Hilton's sallow cheeks when the door
closed and the Eurasian was left alone in the dining-room.